Mobile

Pondering the IBM / Apple Partnership

Lou Biancaniello

IBM and Apple announced that they would be forming a partnership to provide joint mobile enterprise services and applications. In the updates that followed, IBM and Apple addressed that they will:

  • Collaboratively build over 100 native apps targeted at specific industry verticals
  • Optimize cloud services for iOS platforms
  • Extend AppleCare support to the enterprise
  • Provide specific Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions for iPad and iPhone
  • Transition IBM to be an iOS device reseller for the enterprise

Initial reactions ranged from excitement, intrigue and a little bit of shock. IBM and Apple appear to have a partnership that will solidify their leadership in the the mobile enterprise space.

After reading the release and sifting through the information, we at Summa have come away with a lot of questions about the implications. As an IBM Business Partner, Summa’s consultants are familiar with the IT giant’s software and service offerings -- especially focused on the WebSphere, integration, application development products -- and are intrigued to see what this partnership has in store for the two companies, business partners and customers at large. Let’s dive into some of the mobile conversations and musings happening around the Summa water cooler.

App Development

Developing mobile apps in enterprise and corporate environments has been a hot button topic for several years. Questions of “build vs. buy”, “platform vs. open source” and “native vs. hybrid” have been at the heart of seemingly endless debates between business and IT, vendors and consultants, and fans of each of the platform options. Does this partnership make it easier to answer these questions?

Let’s take a look at IBM Worklight 6.2 as an example. This was a major release that offered several major upgrades and additional product offerings, such as:

  • Better support for native apps
  • IDE independence
  • Industry specific app accelerators
  • Better integration with MDM and Security tools
  • Better cloud integration

We’re interested to see how many of these upgrades were seeded in preparation for IBM’s new relationship with Apple. Specifically, Worklight 6.2 provides better command line support, so you can develop using preferred IDEs instead of Eclipse as the standard platform. So does this support pave the way for Worklight integration into XCode for development? With an emphasis on improved support for native apps, this feature also seems to lend itself towards tighter integration with the more complex process of building and deploying iOS apps and support of the partnership. Direct integration with XCode could make this process much easier and more in-line with Android development for Worklight.

IBM and Apple are also promising over 100 native apps for the iOS platform targeted at multiple industries. A few months ago, in conjunction with Worklight 6.2, IBM announced the creation of mobile accelerator apps that would cover multiple industries and could be used right out of the box or used as a starter to build a custom application. How does this new announcement of native apps compare with this existing offering? Is it a whole new offering, or an extension of what IBM is already planning? The details are yet to be shared and we are anxious to learn more.

Cloud and Big Data

IBM has been investing heavily in their cloud strategy recently and has made two large announcements in the past year. The first was IBM’s acquisition of SoftLayer to replace their previous Smart Cloud offering, providing an established set of robust cloud offerings with which to facilitate their growing IaaS products. The other was the addition of BlueMix, a rapid app development platform built on top of Cloud Foundry and promising a strong PaaS offering. Apple also has their iCloud platform which was introduced with the release of iOS 5 several years ago. iCloud provides data storage for backups and app data from iOS devices. Moving forward, how will these three offerings integrate together to provide enterprise cloud capabilities? IBM is already planning a Worklight PaaS solution -- is it possible that native adapters to BlueMix from iOS and Worklight adapters to iCloud could be in the works?

One of the other areas in the announcement that seems to be emphasized (yet, at the same time lacking detail) was the realm of big data and analytics. This is of course an area where IBM has excelled, yet there is no mention of exactly how data will be collected, what exactly can or will be collected and how that data can be accessed and used. IBM currently offers Tealeaf and Tealeaf CX (for user interactions) and is making significant investments and announcements around the Watson family of products. Is this to say that Tealeaf can be more directly integrated with iOS apps to provide seamless data gathering and analytics? Will Watson APIs and services be better integrated to allow cognitive computing at business users’ fingertips? It also makes sense for the platforms and APIs to potentially be integrated with the cloud via iCloud and BlueMix -- we are anxious to learn more about what is actually in the works.

Competition in the Enterprise

While the questions in the previous sections are based directly on information released by Apple and IBM, the effects on the enterprise as a whole are purely speculative, and will play out gradually over the next year or two. In the meantime, keep an eye on the following areas:

  • IBM will provide more robust enterprise cloud-based MDM services specifically designed for iOS devices. MaaS360 (IBM’s recent acquisition for mobile device security and management) promises to be the basis. Will there be device management services and capabilities that will only be available through IBM offerings?
  • AppleCare support for devices for enterprises. Will this support also carry over to apps that were jointly developed as part of the partnership? How will Apple’s “legendary customer service experience” help sell businesses on the value of an IBM Mobile First strategy?
  • How will this partnership affect corporate BYOD policies? With such a tight integration with Apple iOS devices, will businesses be more inclined to adopt an Apple-only policy, much like the BlackBerry and Microsoft CE devices policies of the past?
  • Will the institution of such policies have a negative impact on companies that either embrace a platform agnostic approach, or are standardized on Microsoft or Android devices?

The Apple and IBM partnership announcement was a well guarded secret, and certainly created the buzz publicists dream about. In light of the exciting announcements, promises of seamless integration and new service offerings, we’re still left with a number of questions that are yet to be answered. At this point, we don’t believe anyone has all the answers but as the details start to emerge, a vision for the partnership will materialize -- and, in turn, address these questions and more.

 

Lou Biancaniello
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lou's a Mobile Solution Architect at Summa with nearly 20 years of industry and technology experience. He's worked in healthcare, market research, and even a sports marketing firm and is a seasoned speaker at events like IBM InterConnect and Impact. Lou's also the biggest hockey buff we know—he's even played on the Pittsburgh Celebrity Hockey Team!